Marco Rubio breaks ranks on border debate

Marco Rubio dipped his toes back into volatile immigration waters Wednesday, voting to open debate on a bill to address the humanitarian crisis along the Southern border even though the plan is strongly opposed by conservative Republicans.

The Florida Republican and prospective 2016 presidential candidate defended his vote in an interview, arguing he agreed to begin debate in order to change the bill directing $2.7 billion to the border more to his liking. He said he would block the plan later this week if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) refuses to amend the proposal or if Democrats adopt measures to liberalize immigration laws.

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But 31 of Rubio’s GOP colleagues voted against proceeding to the emergency aid package — including two other potential presidential hopefuls, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas. That puts Rubio in a minority of the Senate Republican Conference that blocked the plan over concerns it spends too much money and fails to effectively speed deportations to Central America — a vote that could reignite questions over the Florida Republican’s handling over an issue that has dogged him with some elements of the right-wing.

Asked Wednesday why he voted to proceed, Rubio said: “Because I want to get on the bill so we can file a better version of it.”

While Cruz has demanded that any bill to deal with the border also end President Barack Obama’s program to delay deportation proceedings for certain people who came to the country illegally as youth, Rubio said such a task could only be accomplished with a debate and votes on the Senate floor.

“The amendment these folks have to end the DACA program, how are we going to file an amendment if we’re not on the bill?” Rubio said, referring to the acronym of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. “To proceed to a vote to get on it, if Harry Reid doesn’t allow it, then we’re going to vote against [the emergency spending bill], and it won’t get passed.”

To win his vote on final passage, Rubio said the bill must end the DACA program for new applicants, overhaul the 2008 human trafficking law to speed deportations and impose more border security measures. None of those measures are likely to be added.

Since the Senate’s sweeping immigration bill that he co-authored passed last summer, Rubio has turned his attention to an array of other issues and rebuilt his standing on the right — even as he has abandoned his plan as it has languished in the House. But with the influx of child migrants from Central America trying to enter at the southwest border, Congress has stumbled into a late-session immigration debate that has put members of both parties in uncomfortable positions.

On Wednesday, two of the Senate’s most vulnerable Democrats from red states — North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan and Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu — voted to block the measure from advancing to a floor debate.

Sparking conservative fears, Democrats have threatened to amend a border package with elements of the Senate-passed immigration bill, which would impose a range of new border security requirements, overhaul the visa program for guest workers and high-skilled workers and provide a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. They say they will certainly push that approach if the House sends to the Senate a slimmed-down $659-million border package.

But Rubio said Democrats would fail to win enough Republicans to break a filibuster if they chose that approach.

“We will not support adding anything to this bill that goes beyond security and the immediate issue that we’re facing,” Rubio said. “Without our votes, they don’t have the 60 votes they need to get anything done. … If it goes beyond [the immediate crisis] in any way, none of us will support it.”